Zuma disputes that his home is being funded by taxpayers.

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Zuma broke his silence over the saga yesterday, saying the upgrade of his home in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal, was purely for security purposes.

Addressing the Foreign Correspondents Association in Johannesburg, Zuma said he had built his own home and that the state had funded the fencing for the property.

"I built my own house. No government built my house. Government came to say that we need security features. They have done things in my building for security."

He said it was also "wrong" to suggest he had asked for the renovations to be done.

Regarding state house Mahlambandlopfu in Pretoria, Zuma said: "It is a very huge house and I only use one room. It has every feature of security. I would not prefer to stay in such a house, whether in Pretoria or Cape Town. If you become president, you have got to do things which as an individual you would not have done."

Zuma's home, believed to have been financed by the government for nearly R250-million, boasts underground corridors and a helipad.

The construction is now subject to numerous probes:

lParliament's Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) will be taking the Department of Public Works - which is spearheading the construction - to task.

Scopa chairman Themba Godi said yesterday that the department would be addressing the committee on its financial report and that during the briefing, questions around the KwaZulu-Natal residence would be raised.

Godi said a decision to call the department had been informed by the disclaimer its financial report received from the auditor-general and a request by DA parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko;

lPublic protector Thuli Madonsela has announced her office would investigate the upgrading of Zuma's private home as well as a state- funded R2-billion town development in the same area;

lThe Public Works Ministry recently said it would probe what appeared to be inflated costs of the upgrade;

lThe DA will be proposing a litany of measures to force Zuma and the government to come clean on the amounts spent.

This follows media reports that the Department of Public Works would be footing the bill for the upgrade, but Zuma would only be personally liable for 5% (about R10-million) of the bill. Zuma earns about R2.6-million a year.

Mazibuko told the media in Parliament yesterday that the government had proffered a series of weak excuses for sidestepping the issue.

She said this included hiding behind the National Key Point Act - which allowed for a lack of transparency in cases where the state security, of residences, for example, could be jeopardised.

Mazibuko plans to introduce a Private Members Bill to amend the act to ensure transparency.

DA MP Anchen Dreyer said the party would also be re-submitting proposed amendments to the Executive Ethics Act which governed the conduct of members of Cabinet, including the president.

"However, limitations within the current Executive Ethics Act prevent appropriate action from being taken. This is because the president is effectively his own adjudicator in cases of alleged conflict of interest," Dreyer said.

She said the upgrade was also in breach of the Ministerial Handbook, which stipulated that Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi may only approve state funds for security measures not exceeding R100000.

DA chief whip Watty Watson said the party would also continue to push for a portfolio committee on the presidency to be constituted in order to ensure parliamentary oversight and ensure transparency. Currently, such a structure does not exist.

"This has created a culture of being seen to be above the law within the presidency."

COMMENTS [ 143 ]

CYBORICO
what happened to beeing innocent till proven guilty, thuli is on it and the corrupt public works r being probed for it, so why claim the president is lying when we havent heared anything formal yet, speculation and feelings turned to facts again? Thats SA for u,
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Good point my fellow blogger. I smell personal hatred from some bloggers here

Who's funding Nkandla? That is a good question. Because the politicians are ducking and diving, we can oly speculate. President Zuma himself gives two versions. In the first one he says the family built the homsetead. In the second one, he says he built the house himself. And now already we have a problem because the two versions are obviously contradictory. The first version, if the family built the homstead, could it be that Aurora money was involved, considering that Khulubuse Zuma is Zuma's brother (Michael) 's son. The Aurora liquidators have to follow the money.

Could Zuma have built the house himself. We also know that Jacob Zuma was struggling to make ends meet before he became president. How can we forget an incident where Jacob Zuma was waiting at Capetown International Airport (with his bodyguards) , out if cash waiting for Schabir Shaik to give him R500. We also know that Msholozi also signed hundreds of cheques which were dishonoured or bounced. We also know that some businesspeople e.g Mr Reddy from KZN was providing loans to Msholozi to build the Nkandla homestead. Some people were saying that Reddy was donating money as a payback to Zuma because he got tenders and also other business with the help of Zuma when the latter was KZN MEC for Economic Affairs.

But we also know that there were allegations of offshore bank accounts related to the arms deal. Accounts in Mauritius and Isle of Man (UK) among others and some held via third parties. There is always a question of whether that money has found its way back into South Africa (assuming that the stories were true). There are relevant bodies ( e.g SARS, Financial Intelligence Centre, The Hawks among others) that can look into these things.

Another allegation is that Public Works is paying for some of the construction in Nkandla. That would mean that Jacob Zuma's private home has been illegally declared a National Key Point without following due process. Even if the house was declared a National Key Point, there are procedures, contraol and caps on expenditure and it would seem in this case the Handbook was tossed out. It is important for Jacob Zuma to come clean on these issues. R240m on Nkandla can build many houses for poor people who stay in informal settlements. This is just not acceptable. An ANC president should be different from some of those African despots who used the Treasury as their piggy bank. This is not how Oliver Tambo, Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki would have done things. This entire project has to be canned.

All thos people you are mentioning were or are not doing anything obviuos to the poor man on the ground to see. Because of his hunger for power Zuma thought he can manipulate the public which he won't succedd in doing. The public put him there and they supported by the parliamentarians can remove him democratically without using a coup de tat format.

@MommaC
R200 mil for a fence? Jirrie, what kind of fence is that?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------R200m for a fence, under normal circumstances no!!! It depends on who is getting the money. You would know that sometimes it costs R1000 for government to procure a pencil which under normal circumstances could seel for no more than R10. In the case of Nkandla all we need is a list of beneficiaries.

According to our Constitution a sitting president may be removed from office on the following grounds:
Section 89 Removal of President

1. The National Assembly, by a resolution adopted with a supporting vote of at least two thirds of its members, may remove the President from office only on the grounds of ¬
a. a serious violation of the Constitution or the law;
b. serious misconduct; or
c. inability to perform the functions of office.

Now based on the above grounds for impeachment Zuma appears guilty of the following.

1. Abuse of public funds or improper use of public coffers for personal gain
2. Deliberately misleading government and the public regarding the nature and extent of public funds on personal

Both of the above are grounds for impeachment of the President but I am not holding my breath that a vote of no confidence is going to be passed in a parliament dominated by the ANC, very sad indeed.

CYBORICO - Do you have any idea how big the state houses are? They could easily host all of Zippers wives. Most of his kids are out of school now, do you expect us to pay for all of them as well? We already pay R100 million to all of JZ's wives A YEAR.

"it seems we know that the masses r not always right"

Indeed, the masses gave us JZ as president. Come on dude, if you are not angered by JZ and how he is f***ing South Africa over, then you are ignorant to what is going on in South Africa.

R200+mil, hey some people are living life to the fullest. Former Director General of the Repuplic, Mr Thabo Mbeki, his house was only R8mil but idiots were dissaproving it. That fat boy called Malema said he can build a mension cost R16mil, today here comes apgrading of R250mil. What going on here? Nna I saty in a shack cost only R3,000.00, life is not fair.

In SA there are 150 million people instead of waisting R250 million on that you should just give each SA citizen R1 million uqede ngendlala in SA you will still have R100 million to waste coz this is just the waist of tax payers money esiyisebenzela kanzima!!!